Most people who live in North
Royalton would agree that we have a pretty good community. Many of us have come from all over to this
community. For myself, I grew up on the
east side in Garfield Heights.

My wife and I both knew the
value of good solid education, considered the parochial alternative, but the
North Royalton schools' reputation is outstanding, and since our local churches
equally do a good job of teaching strong faith, we chose North Royalton.

I recently looked up the home
value of the home we bought in Garfield Heights. It's worth 16-20 percent
less. The home in North Royalton is
stable and has increased through this recession. Why should something like this matter and in
particular, I wonder if it matters to frequent opinion page author, Gaetano
Simonelli Sr. Should he not be more positive about this city he calls his
summer home? I would imagine he would
prefer that his modest newer home in a North Royalton increase in value, due to
a solid operating city, outstanding schools and low crime as opposed to
declining in value.

Yes, as I understand, he
sends his letters of bitterness, negativity and insults to us from the Florida
Kelly Sands community. I don't really
know for sure, but my conjecture is he has a bad day on the green, sits down
and reads about the city and schools trying to improve ourselves and it bothers
him. Yes, his taxes would increase if our community supports the community's
central most important asset, the schools and the 4,750 souls that are learning
here.

Despite this, I would say,
Simonelli has and is experiencing the American dream. He not only has one beautiful home, but
two. He probably doesn't welcome 400 to
1,500 people a day to his home like the schools do, he probably doesn't open
his home up after school for sports, music, theater, citizen groups, CERT,
faith groups, political groups, boy and girl scouts, adventure guides or night
school.

The point of this letter is
to stand up for this community. There is
no blatant negligence in maintaining the schools. There are choices being made to portion out
the set amount of funds the school receives.
For the city, it is being very prudent in renovating the old library
spending about $2 million instead of $12.
And yes, there will be more safety features in a modern structure. North Royalton is on the rise and yes I would
encourage and respectfully ask that all current and former parents support the
bond issue.

Every day we decide to spend
money on a Starbucks coffee, a movie, a play, a ball game. Take a leap of faith for your school
community to invest some of the hard earn dollars to support a school system
that has educated thousands of young Royaltonians. It will pay the community
back 100 fold in tangible and intangible ways.
May God bless and grant favor upon North Royalton.

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.